Do type of prenatal care providers influence neonatal outcomes

Background: Prenatal care is one of the most essential services provided by the health system in every country worldwide. Considering the fact that neonatal outcomes have not ever been studied based on the type of care providers; thus, present study was accomplished in order to determine the relationship between type of care providers and newborn neonatal weight, height and head circumference in Shiraz-Iran Methods: In this descriptive study, data were collected from Shiraz Medical Sciences Hospitalsin Iran during the period of 2017-18. The information was collected by checking the hospital records of 397 women who had a single fetus with low risk pregnancy and received prenatal care from one or more providers. The neonatal outcomes included the age of fetus at birth, and neonatal weight, height and head circumference Results: Findings illuminated that 44.85% of pregnant women had selected gynecologists as their pregnancy care providers. 31.23% of women had selected more than one prenatal care provider. The average age of fetus at birth was (38.65±1.485 weeks) for the gynecologists group. This value was significantly different from groups who had selected other prenatal care providers (P=0.015). There was no significant difference between the type of care providers and neonatal weight (P=0.676), height (P=.0156), and head circumference (P=0.479). Conclusion: Consequently, it is possible to prevent negative outcomes which effect on the neonatal health by providing guidance and education for the mothers in order to select pregnancy care providers.

Keywords:

Family practitioner , Gynecologist , Midwife , Neonatal outcome , Prenatal care